Hot Summer Nights
A24 | Release Date: July 27, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
9
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanApr 13, 2018
Everything is dandy until it’s not and that’s what makes Hot Summer Nights such a stirring and vivid presentation. The stakes are real. Those stakes are what elevate the film from being strictly a chewy exercise in nostalgia. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 26, 2018
In Hot Summer Nights, Chalamet proves he’s learned Hollywood’s most important trick of all: consistency. His performance here is every bit as good as those past credits — more so, in some respects, thanks to his comedic chops — even if the film’s prestige is dampened by, well, tons of pot, cocaine and gnarly murders. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJul 26, 2018
Although every cinematic experiment and story beat doesn’t always work, Hot Summer Nights is downright intoxicating, oozing with panache and sensuality from every pore. Read full review
63
Film Journal InternationalAnna StormAug 1, 2018
It’s a flashy film, but also rather derivative. In the end, Hot Summer Nights is a study in the power of talented actors to elevate material. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKyle KohnerJul 26, 2018
Hot Summer Nights is unconventionally amusing, spits in the face of its own flaws and somehow manages to impress by atmospherically rendering the emotions tied to the trappings of young adulthood. At it’s best, Hot Summer Nights is an admirable attempt at summertime antics void of a happy ending. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 25, 2018
Bynum shoots it all in high pop-pastiche style, with a near-constant barrage of neon freeze frames, slow-pan party shots, and romantic montages set to an eclectic, decade-spanning soundtrack (Tarzan Boy, David Bowie, Roxette, Suicide). Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJul 31, 2018
Some characters are introduced and never fully explored. Others disappear without a trace, leaving the impression that key elements have been left on the cutting room floor. For Timothée Chalamet, one hopes for better luck next time. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 27, 2018
For all of this ersatz panache, the plot of Hot Summer Nights is both groan-inducingly contrived and vapid, its talented young cast wasted on an incoherent script—less a web of betrayal, greed, and adolescent desire than a few dangling threads. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 25, 2018
The result is chaotic, but never lacking in energy – and the cast is up for anything. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 24, 2018
A melodramatic and ham-fisted mashup of beachside-summer-I-came-of-age romance and birth-of-a-weed-dealer drama. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenApr 13, 2018
Visually atmospheric but tonally all over the place, Hot Summer Nights, a first feature by Elijah Bynum, has much to appreciate but ultimately possesses the sampler-platter vibe of a director’s demo reel. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 26, 2018
Elijah Bynum’s debut embracing every last cliche it can find in a perverse attempt to forge its own identity. It’s a noble effort that comes up empty. Instead of something original, we’re left with a sweaty pastiche that shares its protagonist’s desire to be all things to all people, only to wind up losing any sense of itself along the way. Read full review
40
Village VoiceKristen Yoonsoo KimJul 26, 2018
Elijah Bynum’s messy debut film is only bearable thanks to Chalamet’s charisma. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJul 27, 2018
The film is a disappointingly empty experience. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJul 26, 2018
As it cliff dives, unprompted, into reheated cocaine-nightmare territory done better by any number of 1990s ’70s nostalgia films before it, it not only ceases to be fun, but stops pretending it has any vision for where its lead characters should go. Read full review
30
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJul 26, 2018
Perhaps this picture’s higher function is to be a calling card. But I don’t know what a calling-card project that demonstrates that its maker can semi-successfully mimic artistically vital but uncommercial directors is supposed to prove. For me, it mostly proved a waste of time. Read full review
30
TheWrapRobert AbeleJul 24, 2018
The characters, the dumb dialogue, and the story mechanics are the biggest problems with “Hot Summer Nights,” which never convinces, while it uses an annoying, legend-building voiceover narration from an unseen local to keep hawking the notion that we’re seeing life-changing, mythic events. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineHenry StewartJul 20, 2018
Like the teenagers at its center, Hot Summer Nights tries too hard to look cooler than it ever could be. Read full review
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